Avery Mephistopheles Stout

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Boulder, Colorado USA

The last of six bottles (not in the same night!). Pours a dark fluffy head, reasonably well retained. Very alcoholic nose (I feel like I’m getting drunk just inhaling), with lots of raisins and caramel present. Sticky-sweet mouthfeel shows caramel and hops and perhaps a hint of chocolate, but really not much else. A disappointing finish, lacking any sort of coffee or chocolate background to keep this soul-selling ship afloat - it ends all too sweetly. Slightly unbalanced.

Bottled January 2006, Sampled March 2006
Pours with a rich, creamy-chocolate brown colored head that is initially two-fingers thick. The beer is simply midnight black in color. An interesting aroma; initially I get notes of dates and alcohol. There is a rich, malty, almost salty note; a sort of umami kind of notes that could perhaps evoke thoughts of soy sauce, though not really. When you go in for a good, long draught of the aroma your nose gets just a bit singed by hot alcohol notes. There are some hints of chocolate aromatics here, a definite roast-acidity & I have a feeling this is a bit too cold right now.

Thick, almost syrupy, no it definitely is syrupy. It is quite sweet, almost in a sugar-like fashion (as opposed to the richer malt derived sweetness found in many strong beers). The finish has a certain, almost astringent, and lightly hot alcoholic note, that is not really all that detracting, in fact it is almost needed to cut thought the sweetness. Definitely rich and decadent, in fact it is a malt bomb up front, it is not until the middle that a detracting, sugary sweetness takes hold. The finish has a lingering roast bitterness, as well as a hop derived bitterness. My impression up to this point is that this beer is too sweet, and that it seems like filtration has robbed this beer of a lot of complexity.

I am really surprise at how subtle the roast character is; it is definitely here, but is completely dominated by the sweetness. There is a touch of coffee ice-cream here, perhaps some chalky roasted malt, and a bit of burnt acidity in the finish. Put another way, there is a ton of roast character here, it just plays second fiddle to the sweet notes. Fairly drinkable for all its concentrated flavors and thickness, though I certainly won’t be pounding this any time soon. In the end this beer ends up being a bit too cloying, after the first 4oz it becomes a chore, even a 12oz bottle of this is too much. I think there is some potential here; I can actually see this getting quite a bit better with age, what complexity this beer currently lacks, will be added to and made better by some years of aging and subtle oxidation. Even though this is filtered, with the alcohol this beer will age for quite some time; perhaps I will sample this vintage again in 5 years or so.

Bottle from a store in Crystal Lake, IL. (No shirt, no hockey mask, no service.) Pours deep-sea black, as in absolutely no light of any sort will ever touch the recesses of this beautiful onyx libation. Armoma is cherry and chocolate, with a hint of cask-aged bourbon. A touch of alcohol-soaked raisin resides within the bowels of this unholy brew. Flavor is a sweet, sugar-coated cherry with chocolate and roasted coffee beans. The alcohol seems to be lying in wait; no real bite to it. But isn’t that how the Fallen One works? Mysteriously? Palate coats like a squad of mad painters on a wooden shack. Very syrupy feel. This is one hell of a brew... don’t drink this alone at night.

Black Color with Espresso Head. Bittersweet Syrupy Roasts... a TON of Alcohol...Thick Creamy Mouthfeeel.. Super Sweet Sugary Malt Notes..Coffee, Chocolate..Vanilla.. Insane Alcohol on This Brew. Would be Wonderful to Try Again for a Solid Few Years to See if It Becomes More Approacable.

Draught at EBF 2008. Black with medium beige head. Nice mix of coffee and chocolate aromas, followed by an alcoholic burn. Full bodied, smooth mouthfeel. Dry finish.

Batch 2 Rating: Oh so very nice, back up to the quality of fresh batch 1. A beauty to behold, slow developing head, but really excellent retention (improved with time), excellent foamy lacing. Aroma was fruity, dark fruits, roasted malts, a touch of vinousness. The flavor was light roast and chocolate over vinous, dark fruit notes with an assertive pineapple hopping finish, far from sticky sweet, among the best of the imperial stouts. Mouthfeel was carbonated enough to keep the stickiness from being that sticky, finishing even with a hop twang. Nice stuff. Glad they rebrewed this, hopefully it keeps better than a month or two this time around. Numbers going back up and holding closer to my first experience with batch 1. Second tasting of batch 2 in a 3/07 horizontal against Speedway and Peche Mortel, this one came up a tad short, but it was still excellent. All I can say is that the pineapples are ever so present and this is stickier sweeter than Speedway, but still with a hop presence. Hopefully this batch isn’t gonna crash like the first one did, although this bottle seemed a little sweeter/stickier already than the first bottle I got a month ago.

Batch 1 Ratings: Third tasting of same original batch, bottles all purchased at the same time: This beer is not aging well even over only 3-4 months. It’s actually catching up (or down?) in quality with their other Beast releases, coming on strong with sickly sweetness and really hot alcohol, all hop imprints near nil now. What a disappointment, all maple sugar and soy sauce in this tasting, very disappointing. Thing is getting like Sam Adams Triple Bock blended with a bad stout. I hope these other bottles somehow improve and are only currently in a low point. Dropping my original all 9 and 10 ratings to substantially lower scores (6/7/7/5/6). I’d think I was crazy if I read my initial rating on this. I wouldn’t recommend buying this unless they re-release it and you get it fresh. Original tastings:Poured a dark brown-black color with a fantastic head (esp. at 15% ABV). Lacing was spectacular (esp at these abvs). Aroma was of brandy or bourbon or some liquor, some coffee and chocolate, malty sweet. Flavor followed suit with cherries and dark fruits present, and a touch of hops to balance the finish. Maybe too sweet a beer (inserted after second tasting), haven’t made up my mind after a couple of these. The alcohol really didn’t taste like 15% and this one was impressive. Nice thick mouthfeel, carbonation was moderate to low. One of the better impy stouts out there.

Thanks illinismitty. Pours with a black body topped by a thick head with some lacing. It’s sweet and malty with a smokey, roasty note, a little vanilla and notes of soy and teryaki sauces. It reminds me of beef jerky. Full bodied, warming and smooth.

This is a big beer done poorly. It starts off promising, being pitch black with a large, lasting brown head. The aroma is full of dates, raisins, brown sugar, anise and a touch of coffee and soy. All of that is present in the flavor, but it’s nearly masked by an overwhelming sugary, cloying sweetness that ruins the beer for me. This is an example of when the alcohol becomes the goal and not the flavor. You either ruin the beer with cloying sweetness or overly hot alcohol.